The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-05-11

Main had back her lost son, and the sea slept,
and sorrow stupendous woke up in the
arms of rapture-in that voice hear the
command and the promise: "Cast thy burden
on the Lord, and he win sustain thee Why
should you carry your burdens any longeri
Oh, you weary soul, Christ has been in this
conflict He says: my grace shall be suf-
fcient for you. You shall not be tempted
above that you are able TO hear" Therefore,
with all your temptations, go as these disciples
did, and tell Jesus.
Again: commend the behavior of the
disciples to all those who are abused and SLAM
dered and prosecuted. When Herod put John
to death, the disciples knew that their own
heads were not safe. And do you know that
every John has Herodf There are persons
in life who do not wish you very well. Your
rnisfortunes are boneycombs to them
Through their teeth they hiss at you. misin-
terpret your motives and would be
glad to see you upset No man gets
through life without having pummeling
Some SANDER comes after you, horned and
husked and hoofed, 70 gore and traInple you;
and what are you to do9 tell you plainly
that all who serve Christ must suffer persecu-
ton. IL is the worst sign in the world for
you TO be able to say: 81 haven't an enemy
Bible against the one of whom everybody
speaks well If you are at peace with all the
world, and everybody likes you and approves
your work, it is because you are an idler in
the Lords vineyard, and are not doing your
duty.
All those who have served Christ, however
eminent have been maltreated at some stage
Of their experience. You know it was so in
the time of George Whitfield, when he stood
and invited men into the kingdom OF God.
What did the learned Dr. johnson say to
himl he pronounced him miserable mounte-
bank How was it when Robert Hall stood
and spoke as scarcely any uninspired man
ever did speak Of the glories of heaveAl And
as he stood Sabbath after Sabbath preaching
on these themes his face kindled with the
glory John Foster, Christian man, said Of
this man: Robert Hall is only acting, and
the smile on his face is reflection of his own
vanity John Wesley turned all England
upside down with Christian reform, and yet
the punsters were after him, and the meanest
jokes in England were perpetrated about
John Wesley What is true of the pulpit is
true of the pew; 1t is true of The street, it is
true of the shop and the store. All who will
live cody in Christ Jesus must suffer persecu-
ton.
all your Christian experience, if you are, any
of you, at peace with all the world The re
ligion Of Christ is war. 1t is a challenge TO
"the world, the flesh and the DEVIL" and if
you viii buckle on the whole armor of God
you will find a great host disputing your
path between this and heaven. But what are
you to do when you are assaulted and SIAN
dered and abused, as / suppose nearly all of
you have been in your lifes Go out and hunt
up the slandererl Oh, no, silly man; while
you are explaining away a falsehood in one
place, fifty people will just have heard of It
in other places.
/ counsel you to another course. While
you are not to omit any opportunity of set
ting yourselves right, l want to tell you this
morning of one who had the hardest things
said about him, whose sobriety was disputed,
whose mission was secuted, whose COM
partnership was denounced, who was pursued
as babe and spit upon as a man, who was
howled at after he was dead. / viii have
you go unto him with your bruised soul,
in some humble, child prayer, saying: II see
thy wounds-wounds of head, wounds of
feet, wounds of heart. Now, look at my
wounds, and see what l have suffered, and
through what battles 1 am going; and
entreat thee, by those wounds of thine, SYM
pathize with me-" And he will sympathize,
and he will help. Go and tell Jesusl
Again: l commend the behavior of the
disciples to all who may have been bereaved.
How many in garb of mourningl If you
could stand at this point where am standing
and look off upon this audience, how many
signals of sorrow you would behold God has
his own way of taking apart family. We
must get out of the way for coming genera
tons We must get off the stage that others
may come on, and for this reason there is a
long procession reaching down all the time
into the valley of shadows
This emigration from time into eternity is
so vast an enterprise that we cannot under
stand it. Every hour we hear the clang of
the sepulchral gate. The sod must be broken.
The ground must be plowed for resurrection
harvest. Eternity must be peopled The
dust must press our eyelids. at is ap-
pointed unto all men once to die" This
emigration from time into eternity keeps
three-fourths of the families of the earth in
desolation. The air is rent with farewells
and the black tasseled vehicles of death rum
BILE through every street
The body of the child that was folded so
closely to the mothers heart is put away in
the cold and the darkness. The laughter
AlctLcN W bAc up anu TUE EOSe SCdIDeTS
The boy in the harvest field of Shunam says:
my head! my headl" and they carry him
home to die ON the lap of his mother. Widow
hood stands with tragedies of woe struck into
the pallor of the cheek Orphanage cries in
vain for father and mother Oh, the grave is
cruell With teeth of stone, it clutches for its
prey. Between the closing gates of the
sepulcher our hearts are mangled and
crushed. Is there any earthly solacel
None. We come to the obsequies, we
sit with the grief stricken, we talk patheti-
cally to their soul; but soon the obsequies
have passed, the carriages have left us at the
door, the friends who stayed for a few days
have gone, and the heart sits in desolation
listening for the little feet that will never again
patter through the hall, or looking for the
entrance of those who will never come again
signing into the darkness-ever and anon
coming across some book or garment, or little
shoe or picture, that arouses former associ-
alton, almost killing the heart.
Long days and nights of suffering that wear
out the spirit and expunge the bright lines of
life, and give Magazines to the face, and
draw the flesh tight down over the cheek bone,
and draw dark lines under the sunken eyes.
and the hand is tremulous. and the voice is
husky and uncertain, and the grief is wear
ing, grinding, accommodating, exhausting.
Now. what are such to dol Are they merely
to look up into a brazen and Implying
heavenl Are they to walk a blasted heath
unfed of stream, unsheltered by overarching
treel Has God turned us out on the barren
common to diei Oh, no! no mol He has not
He comes with sympathy and kindness and
love. He understands all our grief. He sees
the height and the depth and the length and
the breadth of it. He is the only one that
can fully sympathize. Go and tell Jesus.
Sometimes when we have trouble we go to
our friends and we explain it, and they try
to sympathize; but they do not understand it.
They cannot understand it. But Christ sees
all over it, and all through it. He not only
counts the tears and records the groans, but
before the tears started, before the groans
began, Christ saw the inmost hiding place of
your sorrow; and he takes it, and he
weighs it, and he measures it, and
he pities it with an all absorbing pity Bone
of our bone. Flesh of our flesh Hears of
our heart. Sorrow Of our sorrow.
As long as he remembers Lazarus grave he
will stand by you in the cemetery As long
as he remembers his own heartbreak he win
stand by you in the liberation of your affec-
lions. When he forgets the footsore way.
the sleepless nights, the weary body, the ex-
hausted mind, the awful cross, the solemn
grave, then he viii forget you, but not until
then.
Often when we were in trouble we sent for
our friends; but they We're far away, thew
could not get to us. We wrote to them.
"Come right away" or telegraphed: Take
the next train" They came at last. vet were
a great while in coming. or perhaps were too
late. But Christ is aleays near-before YOU.
behind you, within you. No mother ever
threw her arms around her child with such
warmth and ecstasy of affection as Christ has
shown toward You. Close at hand-nearer
than the staff upon which you lean, nearer
than the cup which you put to your lips,
nearer than the handkerchief with which Won
wipe away your tears-I preach him an ever
present, all sympathizing, compassionate
Jesus. How can you stay away one moment
from him with your griefsl Go now. Goand
tell Jesus